Post the outbreak of the pandemic, all kinds of industries have come to a standstill. Out of the all, the Hindi film industry has hit the rock-bottom and struggling actors’ life in Mumbai has become unfathomable. Due to the spread of the novel Coronavirus, all kinds of film and television shoots have been put on the back burner which in turn has affected the life of struggling actors in Mumbai. The industry has been sending out SOS signals to the government seeking some intervention.
Six months of lockdown has struck down on the livelihood of actors working in the TV or web industry and many of them are finding it back-breaking to make the ends meet. Ashish Roy, an actor from ‘Sasural Simar Ka’ got admitted to a hospital for dialysis on May 14. However, the artist doesn’t have enough money to settle the hospital bills. In an interview with BT, he said, “I was already facing a money crunch and the situation has worsened owing to the lockdown. I had savings of Rs 2 lakh, which I spent during the first two days of being hospitalized. I can’t continue staying here even if I were to die tomorrow.”
With pulling the plug on the shoots, the lockdown has also deprived the artists of something they lived for and with grave money crunch, struggling actors in Mumbai are burning the midnight oil to win the survival race.
Sachin Sharma, a struggling artist in Mumbai who has been trying to tempt the gods for three years now, says it’s very “difficult to survive right now”. “I’ve been auditioning for lead roles and was supposed to do some TV shows in the last three-four months. Unfortunately, the lockdown happened. I live in Andheri, and I have to take money from my parents, there is no option left for us. The rent we are not paying this month, maybe next month too we won’t have to. We have no work, we cannot do anything,” tells us the 24-year-old, who hails from Jharkhand and aspires to work in Showbiz.
Many of the struggling actors come to the Mayanagri with a hankering of making it large in the industry and these newbies stay in either PG accommodations, or rent apartments together. Vikram Krishnan, yet another actor trying to push his luck, says that 6 months of COVID-19 had him stay in quarantine in Andheri due to Covid-19 positive cases in his society. “My roommate works in an IT company. He went back home ever since the lockdown was announced. The groceries I had since March 22, I am having to survive mostly on that. When we need milk, we need to tell the police officers here, and they announce to ask if anyone needs anything,” he says. Krishnan has been residing in Mumbai for over three years now and says that his payment is still stuck for the few assignments he managed to do earlier.